Wainui City Life Church Youth Group Concert

We had a wonderful night out on Saturday night at a concert organised by the Youth Group of the Wainui City Life Church. This wonderful group of young people completely planned, organised, ran, and performed in a concert to raise funds for James' implants.

It was a great night, with all the Hutt Youth groups taking part and performing songs, dances or musical peices. It absolutely ROCKED!!!

Cameron had the time of his life dancing away, and we literally had to drag him out well past his bed time to head home. It was so wonderful to see such a motivated and caring group of people going out of their way to help someone else. The world needs more people like you!

So thanks heaps to the Wainui Youth Group, and all their helpers and family and friends, for a wonderful night.

Yay for James and Yay for the Lions Club!

Some more great news...

First of all, James and i went back down to Christchurch last Wednesday to see the lovely people at Van Asch, and all went so wonderfully well that Joanne didn't see any need to set more goals for James, as he is exactly where he should be for his age! He is even a little ahead in some things (brag brag brag!!!) and, God help us, is crawling! Cameron is totally unimpressed with this, as James now follows him everywhere, and wants to play with what ever Cameron is playing with. It's very cute to watch, but i know first hand just how annoying little brothers are, so can sympathise. (Sorry Alex, but it's true!)

Secondly, i met with two of the lovely gentlemen from the Tawa Lions Club this morning, and they had the most fantastic news - they applied for a grant from a Lions NZ Charitable Trust (and i can't remember the name - will try and find out) and they got it! The whole $6000. of it! This, along with all the amazing work the local Lions have been doing, means that they have fund raised almost ten thousand dollars so far, and are still going! They are a totally amazing group of people!

Which brings me to the last note. The Lions are doing a fundraiser here in Porirua on the 10th of December. It is a movie night at the Reading Cinema, Porirua. Tickets are $20 each, with spot prizes, lucky tickets etc. All the money raised goes straight to James. And the movie? Well James Bond of course! The latest installment of the 007 movies 'Quantum of Solace', which should be a fantastic movie. I will e-mail everyone as well, but please tell everyone you know. It's a great excuse for a night out for those like us who are stay at home nana's, and as i said, all the money raised goes to James.

All going well

Hey there everyone. Just a wee note to say that all is going incredibly well in James' world. He is right where he should be developmentally according to our neuro-development lady, and he is up on hands and knees rocking, just gagging to be following Cameron around now.
Hearing wise - James is loving his implants (and loving the taste of them! they spend a lot of time in the drying kit at the moment, having been liberally smeared with baby spit) and is 'talking' like every other nearly 8 month old. We have noticed quite a difference between right and left, however, as we have had to leave one then the other off for a few days at a time. (James' favorite form of motion is to arch up on heels and the back of his head, and shimmy around the room. Unfortunatly this keeps rubbing raw the top of the implanted part. And he looks down right silly, but he doesn't seem to care.) He seems to hear very well with his left ear, and will turn to us or the tv, and hear the quieter sounds, including voices. His right ear, while i think he can still hear out of it, is no where near as good, and i think he misses all but the loud sounds with that one. Together I'm pretty sure he can hear well. It is an interesting point however, as i am almost certain that had we gone with only one implant, it was the right one that they were going to do. So had we not done both, James would have very little hearing at all. It is a great justification, had we needed one, that we did both ears. Because the look on his face as he waits for us to switch his ears on in the morning, then the huge beaming grin as he hears our voices... well, in the words of the mastercard add - PRICELESS!